1. Think about astronomy so get an 8 inch DOB
2. Take it out to the backyard, living in Sydney, realise there are no stars to be seen, sky glow, so can't find anything to star hop to targets
3. Buy an Argo Narvis, now can find stuff, but too dim
4. Get aperture fever, sell 8 inch, buy 10 inch
5. Still too dim, sell 10 inch, buy 12 inch Meade Schmidt Cassegrain
6. Still too dim
7. Go to dark sky site, massive views, very happy
8. Buy cheap planetary camera and try a bit of planetary AP with Meade
9. Not happy with results, buy more expensive camera
10. Happy with results, but there are only 3 planets worth imaging and the moon.
11. Get bored with planets and realise dark sky site is two hours drive and can only go once every two months
12. See AP of DSO's taken from Sydney, Sell Meade and buy ED80, EQ5 Pro and DSLR
13. After months learning how to Polar Align and focus, realise mount is not that accurate
14. Sell mount and buy g11.
15. Mount is great but stars are eggy. Buy guidescope and Guide camera.
16. Stars no longer eggy, but focus is no good, buy robofocus
17. Focus is good but nebulas are the wrong colour, the tranatula is blue!
18. Sell DSLR and buy expensive cooled camera.
19. Everything is OK, but that field curvature, could do better
20. Sell ED80 and buy TAK
21. Very happy, but realise no one is using taks, they have all got paramount mounts and planewave scopes
22. Get very depressed and sell the lot, but because still a bit interested buy an 8 inch DOB for those clear nights ......
Hahahahah Priceless !!!
I think I'm stalled at about halfway down that path, mainly cos I've run out of money. At least it means it will be a while till I 'buy the 8" DOB'.
Looking at the dark sky map, you wouldn't have to move too far out of Sydney to get to a green zone which has reasonable observing and imaging potential.
I'm fortunate to live 1 hour 15 min away from the centre of Melbourne (about 3 light years in peak hour) and it's a perfect balance between access to city and country living. The city traffic and light pollution is infuriating but being too far from civilization leaves the kids with less opportunity and the family with poorer access to health care.
